Card collecting guide
This is a quick guide to collecting the various card series that produce products in the scope of Slayers related merchandise. It should be noted that some of these cards are not exclusive series for Slayers, but publish card sets that feature Slayers media. Getting started It is an important thing to clarify right off the bat that when it comes to collecting Japanese cards, especially obscure, old, or out of print cards it is not cheap. Whether you're just in it for a few cards, or are a completionist collector, this is an expensive hobby that requires a decent amount of dedication to even start. What makes collecting bits of cardboard so expensive you might ask? The simple answer is the cost of your collecting (generally speaking) is going to be around 80% import costs. If you are ordering very expensive items this isn't entirely the case. But most cards sold on Japanese websites are sold in single card format or small lots. Sometimes you luck out and find a large lot (which reduces your costs considerably, but lots that are too large can be brutal with shipping fees). When it comes to importing you are going to have to use a deputy service unless you have friends or family in Japan who are willing to deal with this hassle for you. Deputy services tend to charge an increasing fee based on the final cost of your item. Some deputy services will do better on cheap purchases, while having a much higher fee, and vice versa. When you find a card or card lot you want, shop around for the best service fee for the cost of your lot. It'll help you save. Most single card listings are between 500 for not so hard to find cards up to 5000 yen or more for a very rare card. Most deputy services charge a fee based on the cost of your item, and may charge additional service fees. They also charge a banking fee. This is because in Japan most currency transactions are done directly via bank accounts, and there is a flat fee of 200-300 yen (the last I imported it was 200, but the deputy sites I glanced at to write this now have it at 300). On top of all these fees, you also have to pay domestic shipping (the cost of the item's shipping within Japan from the seller to your deputy service), and then the shipping internationally. Defining your collecting approach This is important to figure out because it helps you get a real number figure in mind for what you might have to invest to achieve your ideal collection. For the purpose of this page, I will be writing out the prices as they appear on Yahoo Japan, and using ¥ symbol for Japanese Yen. Single card collection: Single card collections are easily defined by wanting only one or a select few cards. This might honestly be the hardest collection to pull together if you don't want to buy extra cards, especially if the cards you are interested in are not rare cards. From personal observation of the cards over the last few year it seems like the rarer the rating of a card, the easier it is to find, with promotional and rare cards popping up frequently, and common and uncommon cards rarely popping outside of massive card lots. The reason for this is likely that it is assumed no one cares about these cards, or that they won't sell well. If you are only interested in one or two cards that happen to be rare or holographic, this might be a cheap thing to accomplish, as most of the rare and holographic cards pop up frequently start around ¥500 with most cards having an end value of ¥1,500 to ¥2,000. There are a select few cards however that have a much higher sticker price. For example, No.228：斬妖剣のガウリイ a holographic card featuring Gourry has the highest average price of around ¥5,000 to ¥7,500. This is also one of the rarest cards to be listed in general, with only a couple of them being listed in Yahoo Japan every year. Rare card collection: Rare card collections are collections of only the "important" cards, that either have a star, or heart rating. Wanting to collect only the holographic cards is also part of collecting only rare cards. This is (as strange as it may sound) the easiest collection to accomplish, but is also fairly expensive. The reason for this is rare cards are usually listed on their own and not in groups (Although collections of just rare or just holographic cards to pop up decently often, so it may be worth the wait). Most promotional cards go for ¥500 to ¥1,500. If listed in groups they can go a bit higher, but not by much. Most none holographic rares are listed in lots with an average starting price of ¥2,000, and can sometimes end up as high as ¥3,500. Most holographic cards start at ¥1,500 to ¥2,000 yen. If multiple holographic cards are listed together it usually starts with a base price of ¥5,000 yen. Completionist card collection: This is the hardest collection to pull together for multiple reasons. The first being that the bulk of the cards in the series as a whole just aren't listed very often. This will likely require you to keep an eye out for the rare mass lots, or to stalk Yahoo Japan religiously for the rarer cards. Another reason is it is difficult to see what you're getting with most mass lots. Very few large auctions will give you a detailed list of what you're going to get, and will instead give just a count of how many cards you will get. It is also rare to see many photos in Yahoo Japan auctions because there are only 3 free images and if the auction sits there for a long time or needs to be listed repeatedly, you quickly eat into your profits. The best approach even with these issues is to wait for a massive lot to pop up on Yahoo Japan. There are several of these a year, with some of the smaller lots being around 50 cards, and the larger ones containing several hundred cards that my close up the vast majority of your missing cards. There are at least 2 or 3 auctions a year that pop up with an either complete* collection or a nearly complete collection. *None of the "complete" collection auctions I have seen have come with all of the decimal double cards so it is worth double checking that they are indeed 100% complete collections. So far, I have not seen an auction that is truly a complete collection. How to find the cards you want This is a difficult thing to answer as it will entirely depend on what cards you want. As I mentioned before, rare, holographic, and promo cards will be the easiest to find as they are listed the most frequently. But Yahoo Japan is not the only second hand market in Japan. There is Rakuten, Mandrake, twitter, and slayers communities around the world. Yahoo Japan just tends to have the highest volume of transactions for these type of products. Really, what counts is your persistence. If you are very patient and routinely search you will be rewarded. Selecting a Deputy Service When it comes to selecting a deputy service the choice for the best one is really all about personal preferences. Do you want a deputy service with low fees? Does your deputy service have lower fees for every price bracket? Do they charge extra for certain features? Fees: When importing it is important to actually take into account how much you'll be paying. It is a very expensive hobby to start doing, especially if you're new to it. Importing comes with 3 fee types: Service charge All deputy services charge you for the service with an escalating fee based on the cost of your auction. Bank transfer fee Almost all transactions in Japan occur through bank transfer. So any deputy service will most likely charge you a fee of ¥300. You will need to pay this fee for every transaction, not just a one time fee when all of your items arrive in the warehouse. Shipping costs Shipping fees are where importing starts to get really expensive. You have to pay shipping once for every order for domestic shipping in Japan (from the seller to the warehouse) and then again once you are ready to have your order shipping to you (the International shipping). Some deputy services will also charge for packaging, some don't. Or some have a special packing service where you can get additional bubble wrap or other safety measures. Most of the time these aren't really necessary. If you are ordering something like glass then it might be a good idea. Please be aware that when purchasing very large lots that the shipping cost will be very high because the order is very heavy. One of the lots I ordered had 1,600 cards and a lot of extra merchandise, like a binder, card sleeves, and protective boxing. The shipping fee for this lot since it was so heavy was over $200. I was very shocked by this. Paper products (cards, books, manga etc) is very heavy when ordered in bulk. Always keep this in mind. Warehouse fees and time limits This is something that varies widely between deputy services. Some services will charge you for warehouse storage, or might only charge if your package is sitting for a certain amount of time, others don't charge a fee at all. It is always worth figuring out before you order. However, even if they do charge, it usually isn't too much. Breakdown of cost Ok, so now that we have a break down of everything, I am going to give an example of a card so you can see. Original auction is ¥1,500 for a rare card. With bank fee it is now ¥1,800. With domestic shipping it is now ¥2,200 With deputy service fee it is now ¥3,200 With international shipping it is now ¥4,700. So in total, ordering that one card costs an additional ¥3,200. *Please be aware this is just one example with theoretical prices, your end price could be lower or higher as fees can change at the whim of the deputy services or shipping prices in Japan. Instant bid vs bid on your behalf This is something that matters a lot and is something to think carefully about. There are pros and cons to each method. Instant bid: Some deputy services will offer you the ability to bid on your own outright, or might charge you a fee to bid on your own (Unless you are buying from YJ a lot, this is usually not worth the price, it is expensive because it is risky for the company). This gives you maximum control over whether or not you win the auction. It is common practice to wait close ton the end of the auction to bid. This can create bid wars that explode in just the last few minutes of the auction. So if it is a rare item, that is in high demand and listed for lower than it should go for then expect that this bid war will occur. The downside is that it is easy to get carried away in those final minutes and spend more than you need or want to. Bid on your behalf: A lot of deputy services bid on your behalf with the assumption that the price you gave them is your absolute max bid. When submitting your offer, you should always submit what your true max bid is, be it whatever you can afford, or the highest you'll be willing to pay for that card. This is generally done by waiting close to auction time and then submitting the max bid price you gave them. The downside to this is that if a bid war pushes the price up higher than your max bid, the company might not see your e-mail in time if you decide to raise the bid later. So if you are using a service that bids on your behalf, make sure the price you submit is really the price you want to give, as you might be out of luck if you want to change it later. Reviews As with any service or shopping site you should always research the service you are using. Looks up what other people have experienced and how happy they are with the service. Not all deputy services are going to be the same, and the fees and overall experience can differ widely between each one. Deputy services are really no different than any other shopping experience in the sense that if you do your research, you will always be better off. I hope this guide is helpful. Best of luck to future card collectors! *Please note that this article was written in May of 2017 and will likely not be updated to keep these prices current. Any card prices listed here or on the planned card collection list are average prices listed from watching Yahoo Japan for about two years.